The Outlaw Roadshow, a four-year-old SXSW party co-organized by Boston music blog Ryan’s Smashing Life, has pulled the plug on its 2014 event. RSL founder Ryan Spaulding just published a note to the multi-day fest’s homepage, co-written by Spaulding and Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, who is also involved in the party.
Last year’s event, at Rusty’s on East 7th Street, featured Animal Talk, Twin Berlin, the Susan Constant, and others over two days. It has provided a SXSW forum for dozens of Boston bands over the past few years.
Here is the statement in full:
Austin 2014 dates are canceled
We regret to inform our music friends and the artists who submitted to play that we must cancel our plans in Texas this March for The Outlaw Roadshow.
This decision was not an easy one to make. Over the course of the next few days, Ryan will be reaching out to hundreds of bands who demonstrated interest in playing this year. We had so very much momentum and excitement coming out of our wildly successfully events in New York City last October that canceling the events in Austin is almost impossible to fathom, but this is not a simple world we live in today. A series of unanticipated logistical problems persisted throughout the planning this year and were only mounting as the event drew near.
Our first goal is to always host these events with the music fan and the artist in mind. ‘Keep ’em great and keep it free.’ We have four years of success doing that. So the very fact the events weren’t shaping up to work properly or that the fan experience wouldn’t be anything other than near-other-worldly helped motivate this decision.
Putting off our dates in Austin is truly heartbreaking. Everyone worked so damn hard to make this year’s events come true. And we thank you all for your toil. We are lucky to be surrounded by such gifted people. Sigh. We almost made it happen. But canceling now will mean great things and more longevity for our future..
We will use this downtime to make sure these missed shows help us preserve The Outlaw for years to come. We intend to show our faces throughout the year during events intended to build our reach, helping more musicians and arts lovers.. The goal, as always, will be to treat you all to the best shows you’ve ever seen, time and again.
We love you all very much and you’ll be seeing us real soon!
Ryan & Adam